Birth Control and Contraception

Foreign Aid Cuts Will Lead to 34,000 More Pregnancy-Related Deaths in Just One Year 

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The freeze on U.S. foreign assistance funding and the subsequent stop work order has already taken an irreversible toll on global health programs, including family planning services, causing chaos across public health systems and forcing many sexual and reproductive health providers and programs to close doors permanently. Despite ongoing litigation to challenge these actions in court—including an important court victory that found this attack likely unconstitutional—most USAID partners are still waiting for government payments for work already completed. Adding to the upheaval, the administration gutted USAID staff and cancelled 83 percent of its aid contracts. 

Contrary to the Trump administration’s claims, cutting foreign aid for reproductive health is not a fiscal gain, but a significant step backward.  

Trump’s Detention of Pro-Palestinian Protester Marks Dark Turning Point in U.S. Jewish History

Days before Purim, the Jewish “festival of the lots,” the Trump administration arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a U.S. green card holder whose spouse is a U.S. citizen, because of his role in anti-Israel or pro-Palestinian protest activity at Columbia University.

This is a terrible breach of civil libertarian principles and university cultures of critique and dissent. Immigration and naturalization are being pulled back, it seems, into an early-20th-century mode in which ambiguous standards of what constitutes acceptable or unacceptable political speech become grounds for admission or deportation from the U.S.

Explainer: How Does Family Planning Save Lives?

When a war forcibly displaces tens of thousands of people, UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, equips displacement camps and medical personnel with critical supplies—including condoms, oral and injectable contraceptives, contraceptives implants and intrauterine devices. 

When an earthquake tumbles whole city blocks, UNFPA puts contraceptives onto emergency relief convoys, alongside kits for delivering babies and medicines to stop internal bleeding.

When a cyclone slashes through remote island communities, UNFPA sends contraceptives just as it sends sterile medical equipment.

Why? Because contraceptives are part of life-saving humanitarian care.

New York Times’ Shameful Reporting on Planned Parenthood Bolsters Right-Wing Attacks on Reproductive Healthcare Access

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The New York Times recently published a 3,000-word investigative report claiming to have found “scores of allegations” against Planned Parenthood for misconduct, medical malpractice, mismanagement and labor violations. Released within a month of Trump’s inauguration, the article appears timed to provide ammunition for the ongoing right-wing attack on reproductive rights. 

The NYT could have invested its significant resources into investigating how Planned Parenthood plays a unique and irreplaceable role in the U.S. healthcare system as the nation’s leading provider of sexual and reproductive healthcare and largest sex educator. By choosing to publish what reads as a hit job on Planned Parenthood at this political moment, while failing to devote any resources to investigating the opaque and unregulated antiabortion industry vying to defund and replace Planned Parenthood, the NYT has done a grave disservice to readers, especially women and girls who need reproductive healthcare.

‘Thank You, Mike Johnson’ Campaign Donates Emergency Contraception—in the House Speaker’s Name

Less than a month into the new Trump administration, Republicans have already come for repro rights, removing reproductiverights.gov and reintroducing a bill to repeal the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.

Now, it’s more important than ever to call out antiabortion extremism while supporting birth control access—and Cadence OTC’s new donation drive “Thank You, Mike Johnson” accomplishes both. Cadence OTC is a California-based public benefits company. They are currently working to make their birth control pills and emergency contraception available over the counter, including in states facing legal pushback to contraception access. In their new campaign, whenever House Speaker Mike Johnson or another political figure spreads misinformation or anti-contraception rhetoric, Cadence OTC donates emergency contraception to U.S. women—including in Johnson’s home state of Louisiana—in his name.

‘Money, Lies, and God’: The Rise of Christian Nationalism and the Battle for American Democracy

Katherine Stewart’s Money, Lies, and God exposes the alarming rise of Christian nationalism as a well-coordinated, anti-democratic movement seeking not just power, but the destruction of democracy itself. She describes this movement as “more political pathology than political program,” with its leaders intent on “burning down the house.” Stewart reveals how right-wing religious and political forces use disinformation, authoritarian alliances and targeted outreach—particularly through churches and media—to gain influence.

Despite internal contradictions, she warns that their strategy is effective: “A fractured and ill-informed public is easier to control than a well-informed one.”

However, she argues that a broad, pro-democracy coalition can push back, emphasizing the need to expose dark money, defend public education and strengthen the separation of church and state.

‘They’re Coming After Birth Control’: Rep. Lizzie Fletcher on the Fight for Contraceptive Rights

Despite overwhelming public support for contraception access, Republicans continue to block legislation protecting it. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher explains why the fight for birth control rights is more urgent than ever.

“The same people who have been crusading against abortion rights for decades aren’t stopping there. They have their eyes set on contraception and birth control.”

USAID’s Reproductive Health Funding Has Saved Millions of Lives. Now It’s Gone.

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, boasted that he was gutting the federal agency tasked with providing foreign aid to its poorest. The agency’s funding in 2023 was about $40 billion, which represented less than 1 percent of the federal budget. “We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper,” Musk, the tech billionaire head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, posted on his social media platform, X.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was established in 1961 to provide foreign assistance to impoverished countries around the world through food aid and humanitarian and economic development work. It is also one of the world’s largest providers of contraception through its family planning program.

Research Supports New Medication Abortion Regime—But Some Fear Political Risks

Gynuity Health Projects has published new research in the New England Journal of Medicine suggesting that a double dose of ulipristal acetate (UPA), sold as an emergency contraceptive under the brand name Ella, taken in combination with the ulcer medication misoprostol, is an effective and acceptable medication abortion regimen with no reported serious adverse events. 

The current recognized clinical standard for first-trimester outpatient abortion is mifepristone and misoprostol, but mifepristone is tightly restricted by the FDA. Ulipristal acetate, on the other hand, currently has no such restrictions.

Some have expressed concern that this research could endanger access to Ella in the United States, and potentially also endanger the FDA-approved over-the-counter emergency contraception Plan B, made from the synthetic hormone levonorgestrel.

‘The Pill That Changes Everything’: The Ms. Q&A With Carrie N. Baker, Author of ‘Abortion Pills: U.S. History and Politics’

In recent years, the use of abortion pills has skyrocketed and now accounts for an estimated 65 percent of all abortions performed in medical settings, including through both brick-and-mortar clinics and telehealth providers.

Carrie N. Baker’s fascinating new book, Abortion Pills: U.S. History and Policy, tells the story of a decades-long struggle for acceptance of this safe, secure and private method of ending an early pregnancy. It’s also a story of antiabortion attempts to suppress abortion pills.